BBC: Royal Charter

Lord Pendry: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to the influence of overseas lifestyle broadcast programmes on the loss of skilled workers from the United Kingdom to Australia and New Zealand, in particular in their negotiations with the BBC on the Royal Charter.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: No consideration has been given to this issue: the BBC is editorially independent. Government has not begun Charter Review but has no intention of changing this arrangement as part of that process.

Horses and Ponies: Hot Branding

Baroness Mallalieu: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made with the Code of Practice on the hot branding of semi-feral moorland ponies.

Lord De Mauley: In light of concerns expressed about the hot branding of semi-wild moorland ponies, I investigated the practice and invited the moorland pony societies to come together and draft a Code of Practice to reduce the chances of incorrectly applied hot brands. I have also asked them to consider alternative methods of identification as we move forward. Hot branding of equines is generally not permitted under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, although an exemption is permitted for the purposes of identification of moorland ponies only. I am delighted that work on the Code is now complete and I am grateful to Sandra Mansell of Native Ponies GB for co-ordinating the completion of the Code, which has been produced by the moorland societies working with a range of animal welfare and veterinary interests. I am placing copies of the Code in the Library of the House.

India: Golden Temple, Amritsar

Lord Ahmed: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have considered the risk of legal action against the United Kingdom arising from the advice given to the government of India in relation to the operation at the Golden Temple in 1984; and, if so, what conclusions they have drawn.

Lord Wallace of Saltaire: Information relating to internal discussion and advice is not normally disclosed. The Cabinet Secretary’s report concluded that the nature of the UK’s assistance was purely advisory, limited and provided to the Indian government at an early stage, and that it had limited impact on events.

Justice: Family Law

Lord Beecham: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what conclusions they have drawn from the reduction in the number of family law claims including help with mediation from 62,390 referrals to publicly-funded mediation in 2012-13 to 20 out of 82,000 claims between April and October 2013.

Lord Faulks: The figures quoted are not comparable. The figure of 82,000 refers to claims for clients who received legal aid for pre-proceedings work (legal advice and assistance including solicitor negotiation) across all family matters. This will include for example advice in relation to domestic violence.
	The figure of 62,390 refers to the total number of “funding code” referrals for mediation assessments. Not all of these referrals will result in actual mediation sessions and, as a consequence, not all will result in a claim for legal advice.
	The figure of 20 claims refers to the number of Help with Mediation matter claims. This is the number of clients who have participated in mediation and received publicly funded legal advice in support of mediation.
	We cannot say how many clients before April 2013 received legal advice specifically in support of mediation as this was part of the general advice to clients and cannot be identified separately in the claims data.

Public Order Act 1986 and Communications Act 2003

Lord Lester of Herne Hill: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many prosecutions have been brought in the last 10 years under sections 4A and 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 and under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.

Lord De Mauley: Core Defra allows the following organisations to receive payments by the use of payroll deduction facilities:
	Benenden Healthcare SocietyCharitable GivingCharity for Civil ServantsCivil Service Benevolent FundCivil Service ClubCivil Service Pension Scheme (including stakeholder pension)Civil Service Retirement Fellowship
	Civil Service Sports CouncilCustoms & Excise Sports ClubCustoms Fund InsuranceDefra LotteryDepartment of Environment Recreational AssociationDimensions FitnessFirst Division AssociationFidelitiForester Health Plan SchemeHalfordsHospital Saturday FundHospital Savings AssociationProspect UnionPublic and Commercial Services UnionSimply HealthSovereign Health CareSun Life Assurance CompanyWelsh Office Sports & Social AssociationWestfield Health Scheme

Sport: Winter Sports

Lord Moynihan: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have studied how Australia, the Netherlands and Spain support their winter sport international athletes; and what conclusions they have drawn from any such studies.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: UK Sport does not study how specific countries support their winter sport international athletes, which will be tailored to particular circumstances and differ between sports, but continually scans the international high performance landscape for best practice in all areas of the elite sport environment.

Transport: Buses

Lord Moonie: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of bus companies’ revenues were raised from (1) fares and (2) free bus passes, in the last year for which figures are available.

Lord Faulks: The Department for Transport publishes statistics showing bus operators’ revenue and concessionary travel reimbursement each year. The most recent information shows that bus operators in England received £3,132 million from passenger fare receipts and £1,014 million from concessionary travel reimbursement in England in 2012/13. This is for both the statutory off-peak bus travel concession and any discretionary travel concessions offered by local authorities.
	Passenger fare receipts include revenue retained by operators from both commercial and tendered bus services. Commercial fare revenue is not published separately. Revenue data by year and by area of England are published in Table BUS0501 at the following link:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/annual-bus-statistics-2012-13